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Have you seen this new phenomenon? These little food pouches? No, I’m not talking about the pockets on hoodies you hide sneaky snacks in for quick nibbles throughout the day, nor am I referencing any part of the body that may or may not have stored extra food while growing a baby. Those are not the food pouches I am referring to, although both exist in this house. Awesome.

The food pouches I’m referring to are the little on-the-go baby food purees that squeeze out a little tube at the top of the pouch. Great for travel, great for quick meals, great because you don’t need any extra dishes to feed a child. I knew about them, but I was set on being the frugal mom that fed our baby from the table along with other things I cooked. The problem? It’s no fun to travel on an airplane (or any mode of transportation) with a variety of tupperwares filled with assortments of mushy produce. So when we traveled to Florida for Christmas we loaded up and were delighted by the ease of the brilliant food pouches. We went nuts. We bought them all. Peter Rabbit, Ella’s, Earth’s Best, Healthy Whatever it’s called-they were all ours!

One little problem. These fancy pants easy to use on the go miracles were hurting the wallet. Those suckers can cost up to $2 a pouch. Maybe for vay-cay that’s ok, but for sustainable happy living in our budget guided life, I needed to find a new way.

So I did what every self-respecting, won’t take no for an answer mom did. . .I scoured amazon for a refillable food pouch.

Now let me tell you-even the refillable, reusable, make your own food pouches has a crazy market. Companies are selling gadgets to fill bags, spouts are coming out of every end, there are rubber caps to put over the spouts. . .it’s crazy. But I’m here for you. I want to help you sort through the madness and keep your head above your budget. Because Lord knows, you want that extra $10 at the end of the month for Starbucks.

Here’s the scoop:

Filling Stations

Beware of the companies selling gadgets and presses and lots of froo-froo filling stations. First, the cost is outrageous for these kits, plus, the bags are typically not reusable, so you will be forever suckered into buying bags from them. Plus you have to clean and store more baby c.r.a.p. No offense, but there’s a lot of it, so I’m just helping you purge before you kick yourself in the pants.

#3. would be a pain in the rear to clean. We are moms. Let’s not make things even more difficult. We barely have time for showers, let alone trying to figure out how to shove a pipe cleaner into plastic bags to try and get yesterday’s squash surprise out.

Reusable-it has a mega duty zippered bottom that you can seal and unseal to clean and fill. Have had no problems with leaks yet.

It holds 6oz of homemade goodness (or let’s be honest, applesauce from a jar)

Easy to clean-the zippered bottom opens up wide enough to get food out easily. The spout is also directly at the top, so there are no creepy crazy corners to try and clean out (like having a spout on the side).

Easy to fill-just flip it upside down in a glass and spoon in food. No extra gadgets required!

Inexpensive-you can get 8 for $25-that’s a little over $4 a piece on Amazon. Use them a few times and they are paid for.

Great for a wide range of ages-my baby is 9 months old, but I have friends who have toddlers who love them, and even children who will down smoothies and fruit blends.

Cons

You have to be careful not to overfill it because when you go to zip it closed food will squirt out. ReSqueeze recommends filling 3 quarters.

They don’t stand on their own like the pouches from the store. Not a huge bummer, but for little learning hands sometimes it’s harder to grab on their own.

Because it’s plastic, even after a good washing it can leave behind some sweet potato smell. It is BPA free though (winning)

I’m exited enough about these suckers to blog about it to moms from my own heartfelt experience (ie no kickback here, although ReSqueeze, I wouldn’t mind so more pouches over here for the babe, and maybe some giveaways-hint hint).

Check out my next blog post for nourishing homemade purees that you can use in your food pouches.